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First patch! Matt Moen and a village of contributors

Every DrupalCon, there's a moment I especially look forward to: the First-Patch "ritual". This time around, a patch written by Matt Moen, Technical Director at Kilpatrick Design, was selected for fast-track testing, approval, and was committed to Drupal 8 core in front of a few hundred of us at the Austin convention center. In this podcast, I talk with Matt about becoming a core contributor; we hear from Angie "webchick" Byron about how it takes a village to commit a patch; and I've included a quick refresher on how version control works with the Gitty Pokey from the DrupalCon Austin pre-keynote. You can see the full patch approval and commit process in the 2nd video embedded on this page.

Celebrate good times!

The in-person code sprints at community events do produce new patches for Drupal, but I contend their primary purpose is to create and strengthen the interpersonal relationships that make our otherwise remote collaboration on the project so successful. The First-Patch "ritual" is a celebration of what we do in Drupal and open source software (check out the energy in the room in the 2nd video on this page!). Remote collaboration can feel abstract and lonely. By highlighting one patch, its creator, and all those who got it ready for approval and inclusion in the Drupal codebase, the community has a concrete moment to focus on when it is "really real" and happening right in front of you.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I do. The full patch approval and commit video also contains a bunch of useful tips and information about the process.